The Ellen Pompeo-led Hulu limited series “Good American Family” tells the seemingly improbable story of an Indiana family who adopted a six-year-old Ukrainian girl who they believed to be much older. After what her adoptive mother, Kristine Barnett, called “sociopathic” behavior, the Barnetts legally changed their daughter’s birth year from 2003 to 1989 and abandoned her.
This, in fact, is a true story.
“Good American Family” tells the true crime story from opposing perspectives, giving a glimpse into the Barnetts’ viewpoint, Natalia Grace’s and the eyes of the law.
Natalia Grace’s case first made headlines when her adoptive parents, Kristine and Michael Barnett, were charged with neglect in 2019 after allegedly abandoning their daughter alone in an apartment before moving with their three biological sons to Canada and cutting off contact.
Before the Barnetts left their 8-year-old, just over a year after adopting her in 2010, they petitioned Marion County to change Natalia’s birth records to indicate a 1989 birth year, making her 22 years old. They believed that Natalia, who has a rare form of dwarfism called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, was tricking the family that she was younger than she was and harming their biological sons. The couple accused her of being a “sociopath” and alleged that she had pubic hair, adult teeth and was menstruating, according to the Investigation Discovery docuseries “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace.”
Natalia has repeatedly denied the allegations against her. In January 2025, she told People, “I didn’t understand why I was alone. I just knew I had this instinct in me to push and survive. All I was told was, ‘You’re 22 now. Whenever somebody asks you what your age is, you say you’re 22 and you tried to murder your family.’ I was taught to lie.”
The Barnetts, now divorced, faced neglect charges in 2019. The adoptive parents moved Natalia into an apartment on the second floor, which prosecutors deemed neglectful because of her disability. Because Natalia’s age had been changed legally in the state of Indiana, the courts did not take her age into account in the case, only her dwarfism.
Michael was found not guilty in October 2022, and Kristine’s charges were ultimately dismissed in March 2023.
After being left alone in the apartment building, a neighboring family, The Manses, took Natalia in in addition to their 10 children. In her docuseries “The Curious Case of Natalia Grace,” the Ukrainian adoptee detailed her experience with the “abusive” father and how she escaped from Cynthia and Antwon Mans.
In January 2024, a DNA test seemed to reveal that Natalia was, in fact, a child when the Barnetts adopted her — despite their claims otherwise. The blood test, which was conducted by the medical lab TruDiagnostic, showed that Grace was approximately 22 years old at the time when the lab work was completed in August 2023. The results of the test determined that Grace was 9 years old when she was adopted by the Barnetts in 2010.
Natalia now lives with The DePauls, the family who initially tried to adopt her but were denied in 2009. They are also little people.
“Good American Family” is available to stream on Hulu.
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